Come join us on this crazy adventure! For many years and lots of consideration, we are leaving all we’ve ever known for something new. We’re moving from our hometown of St.Louis, born and raised, to Atlanta in 3 weeks! It’s something we’ve romanticized about and now that it’s happening, gulp! God’s favor has been all over us through this scary process and it’s a bit of chaos and certainly not the easiest thing we’ve ever done, nor the cheapest. But here we go…

My husband and I know that this move symbolizes another level of trust for us. Trusting each other and trusting God. We are moving out of our comfort zones into a big vast sea of possibilities; possibilities of failure and success.

I love that I don’t have to worry about this not working. Our great big God goes with us wherever we go and there’s always a reason. I pray my children are able to look back on this when they are older and see that too. I pray they also know that they can dream dreams as big as God.

We are so excited for our future friendships for us and our kids. By the way, if you have your own kids and live in the Atlanta area, I have some pretty fantastic kids that make great friends. My 3 musketeers love laughing and having fun. It’s never dull. As for me, I like long walks on the beach and…no, never mind. But I do enjoy fun and laughter and can’t wait to see who God leads us to.

How can you help us? Pray for us. Pray for our families. We are leaving both sets of our parents. We are taking their precious grand babies farther away. It will be a time of change and getting use to things being different. Thank God for FaceTime! Pray that they have understanding hearts as we take this grand adventure. We know that they are our biggest fans and are on their knees for us always. We have relied heavily upon our families the last 5 years. This move will deepen our appreciation and love for them, I am sure of it.

Pray for our future home. We are still on the hunt and while my chest could start getting tight and I might have a hard time breathing when I start to think about that scenario, it doesn’t. There’s an eerie level of trust and faith oosing out of me these days with this grand adventure. The Bible tells us “do not be afraid” 365 different times. That’s one for each day of the year. Reason #1 why I can be FEARLESS.

Stay tuned for what new craziness comes up next. We know it won’t be boring because we have an incredible writer writing our story. We trust Him completely.

I write this letter to you today from the depths of my mom heart and what I know I experience daily and truly believe you must too. I also write this to my sister who will soon be a new mom. Get ready for one glorious and messy adventure called parenthood.

So many little things go unnoticed.

To the mom up all night with a screaming baby, you are not alone.

To the mom who lies awake at night wondering if she’s doing a good job, you are not alone.

To the mom who wakes up in the morning and is smothered with kids before her feet hit the floor, you are not alone.

To the mom who doesn’t even bother to close the bathroom door anymore because you know you’ll have company, you are not alone.

To the mom who is buried in laundry, you are not alone.

To the mom that always has to think 3 steps ahead, you are not alone.

To the mom that feels like a taxi service, you are not alone.

To the mom that found yesterday’s lunch wiped on the living room couch, you are not alone.

To the mom that thinks you’ll never be able to show your face at Target again bc of the last incident in there with your kid, you are not alone.

To the mom that feels helpless and alone when your child does something one more time after you’ve told them not to, you are not alone.

To the mom that looks in the mirror and wonders when she’ll feel pretty or “normal” again, you are not alone.

To the mom who puts everyone else first, you are not alone.

To the mom who prays prayers over her kids, you are not alone.

To the mom that rarely hears “Thank you”, you are not alone.

To any mom, You got this! You are not alone!

You run all day at the speed of life.

You fall into bed when you run out of hours.

And you wonder if anything worth doing got done.

While I pray you understand that you are not alone, I also pray that more than anything, you know that you are making a difference. Your children are the faces of hope and the future. Only YOU could be their mom. A far better calling or title than anything else in this world.

All of us have fears. As a parent, the moment we find out the existence of our children, concerns and worries begin. I knew a mom back in my babysitting days that was afraid of several things. So much so that those fears began to impact her children and they too took on those fears. One of her fears were of elevators and escalators. Now I don’t think you’re wrong for having this fear if you do, but bear with me. This woman would walk 5 miles to get to stairs to avoid an elevator or an escalator. I asked her once if something happened in the past like a bad experience with one of these. She replied with “No, and I intend to keep it that way.”

One time I took her 5yro son to the mall by myself. We were having a great time until we approached the elevator. I got on and turned around to find him dead in his tracks and eyes as wide as a deer in head lights. He was just shaking his head like “No way! I am not getting on that thing!”

I leaned down and said “Why don’t you want to get on?” He shrugged his shoulders. I said “If I hold your hand super tight would you do it? There’s nothing to be afraid of. ”

The elevator doors opened for us to get on and we did. You see at the end of the ride I asked again “Why we’re you scared to get on?” He replied “I don’t know! My mom never let’s me go near one. Can we do that again?!”

I want my children to know that their God is big and strong. That He goes everywhere with them and there’s nothing to fear. Fear can paralyze you from experiencing something you may need to experience. Fear can keep us from doing the things sometimes that we need to do. But the reality is, God’s right there saying “I gotcha!” Now every time I see an elevator or an escalator, I’m reminded to say goodbye to fear and to remind my kids of why we can say goodbye to fear.

Tomorrow is Leap Year Day. Did you know that February 29th only happens once every four years?! So what’s so significant about it? For our family, nothing. Except one tradition that I’ve been set on starting with my kids and am determined to carry out until they are grown. My kids will get to have ice cream for breakfast tomorrow. Yes, that’s right. Ice Cream for breakfast! My kids will get ice cream for breakfast twice this year in fact. They get ice cream for breakfast on the first day of school and on Leap Year Day! I do not tell you this for parent cool points. Is there even such a thing and if so how do I attain more? Do tell!

I tell you this for simply that I think it’s important that each family creates their own traditions. I say no to a lot of things that other parents allow their kids to do. But ice cream for breakfast on the first day of school and on Leap Year Day is something that I share with my kids and my kids only. It’s one of the ways I feel the roots of our family growing down a little deeper into the soil. I’m pretty sure it’s something they’ll talk about with their own kids someday. What kind of traditions are you creating within your own family? Leap Year Day may be a great first start.

Lately I’ve been deep in thought about this whole motherhood thing. I’m 5 and a half years into it. With a new year comes new focus. Everyone is trying to figure out how they themselves can be better and how they can better others. At least I like to think the latter happens for most people.

I’d like to say that I love everything about motherhood. It’s all I ever wanted since I was 4 years old. But its not always pretty. Which brings me to the realization that often what I’m going through or the “secret” feelings I have in my days about parenting, well, simply I cannot be alone. There are other moms and parents thinking and feeling the same thing. There are fathers who come home from work and feel the same way that my husband says he feels. Smothered. Like he was never given a chance to come up for air. After 5 minutes of being home the other night he turned to me and said, “Welp, I’m done after 5 mins. You’ve had em for 9 hours by yourself. You think you can take it from here?” He was completely joking. He knows that I would have thrown the nearest heavy object at him if he wasn’t. (We don’t really throw things at each other people!)

My husband and I have had many conversations about parenting. We believe that there is parenting from mountain tops and parenting from within the forest. Currently, we are in the phase where we are deep in the forest. In fact, we are staring at 3 trees extremely close. Sometimes too close. It’s hard to see around these trees that are in front of us at times. Sometimes its hard to breathe. I know that I am not alone in this feeling.

I love that the current church is strategizing and learning how to come alongside of families and parents and partner with them in the raising of the next generation. But I cannot shake that perhaps there is something missing in directly encouraging and impacting parents. They need to know that they are not alone. That they can do this! That like all things in parenting, everything is a phase, and whatever awful thing your kids are doing that you think they will never stop doing, will pass. Sometimes I wish the church would also realize that parents have a one up in the world of reaching other parents before the church does.I have found that parenting is an automatic common ground with another parent whether I know them well or not.

Sometimes parents just need to be told that their doing a good job. They need to hear “You’ve got this thing.” I don’t’ care if you’re a churched family or not, all parents need to hear that they are not alone and that they are doing a great job. They need to hear that as a family unit, God has great big plans. I wish I could bathe parents in peace and rest.

Much like running a race or playing a sport, cheering fans can be game changers. Not to mention that being one of those cheering fans is almost as equally rewarding as being one of the players on the field. You begin to take on an ownership. A team commrodary. I’ve often heard runners say that they heard someone cheering from the sidelines just when they were about to throw in the towel and they got a big push to finish because of that cheering fan. It’s like everything comes into focus and the Why in what we do as a parent becomes clear again.

So if you see a mom or dad that is struggling or they have that look like “I just want to tie my kid to a chair and return when they are asleep,” give em’ a pat on the back. Even if they look like they’ve got it under control, tell them their doing a great job. Find the common ground. Every parent wants to succeed. Become a cheering fan for parents and I’m pretty sure that its a small step in the right direction of changing the game of great parents that produce some great kids. Great Families! Go ahead. I dare all those that are parents to invest in the next generation (your kids and your kids kids!) by investing in the next generations parents.